Friday, April 30, 2004

All clear after mysterious odor reported at Fayetteville store By JOHN MUNFORD jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com Emergency crews using sophisticated air quality monitoring equipment were unable to detect any contaminants at Belk department store at Fayette Pavilion after shoppers and employees there reported dizziness and nausea from smelling an unknown odor Wednesday afternoon. A total of 16 patients were evaluated, with six people taken to the hospital for treatment, but no one was believed to have life threatening injuries, said Sgt. Bill Rieck of the Fayetteville Fire Department. All six people admitted to the hospital were later released, he said. Belk and several other nearby stores, including Lane Bryant, were evacuated and a hazardous materials crew wearing special protective gear entered the store to look for any suspicious material and activate the air monitoring equipment. “All readings were within the normal range,” Rieck said of the air samples the equipment analyzed. It is possible that it will never be known what the odor was, Rieck added. After the two-man hazardous materials crew left the store, their suits were decontaminated in a setup that includes inflatable “kiddie” pools to hold the runoff from the washdown. The runoff and the suits were then placed into a barrel in a process designed to keep any possible contamination from spreading. In this case, no contamination was found. The monitors didn’t record “anything but normal air,” Rieck said. “All the conditions inside are fine,” Rieck said Wednesday afternoon. Rieck said emergency crews were checking the building’s air conditioning system because it could have been the source of the odor. The victims said they had been smelling the odor for a period of time before the first person developed symptoms, Rieck said. The victims had a difficult time describing the odor, he added. “It was not a brief exposure,” Rieck said. Other stores evacuated included Casual Corner, Doctor’s Vision Center and Shoe Carnival. A large number of emergency responders were on the scene including units from the Fayetteville Fire Department, the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services and the Peachtree City Fire Department. All three agencies participate on the county’s multi-jurisdictional hazardous materials team, which was on hand with a trailer containing special equipment designed for hazardous materials investigation and mitigation.

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